Most bookkeepers can reconcile accounts going back 3 to 7 years. The practical limit is usually determined by whether you can still access bank statements, not by any accounting rule. Most banks retain statements for 7 years, though some credit unions and smaller institutions keep them for less time. Online banking portals often only show 18 to 24 months, but you can request older statements directly from the bank.

The further back you go, the more challenges you face. Documentation gets thin. Receipts fade or disappear. You may not remember what certain transactions were for. Vendors you paid years ago might not have records anymore. A bookkeeper can still reconcile the bank accounts themselves, but categorizing expenses accurately becomes harder without supporting documentation.

Your own records matter more than you might expect. If you kept credit card statements, invoices, and receipts organized, going back 5 or 6 years is straightforward. If you have nothing but bank feeds, the reconciliation will happen but some transactions will end up in generic categories or require your best guess about what they were.

Not every situation requires going all the way back. If you just need accurate books going forward, starting with a clean slate and reconciling from the current year often makes more sense. But if you need historical data for a business sale, tax issues, or legal matters, going back as far as possible is worth the effort.

Catch-up bookkeeping for older accounts takes more time than current-year work. The cost scales with how many months or years need attention and how complete your records are. Two years of relatively organized transactions costs less than five years of chaos with missing statements.

There are situations where going back further than 3 years doesn’t make financial sense. If the cost of reconstructing old books exceeds any benefit you’ll get from having them, you’re better off drawing a line and moving forward with clean records. A good bookkeeper will tell you when that’s the case rather than billing you for work that won’t help.

If you’re unsure how far back your books need to go, start by gathering whatever bank statements and records you have. Small business bookkeepers in Santa Fe can review what you have and tell you what’s realistic for your situation. The answer depends less on some universal rule and more on what documentation exists and what you actually need the historical data for.